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As long as you can still make your own decisions, your advance directive won't be used. You can change or cancel it at any time. Your health care agent will only make choices for you if you can't or don't want to decide for yourself.

An advance directive encompasses all legal orders which concern your wishes surrounding future medical care. The document will come into play in the case of severe medical situations in which you're not able to communicate your wishes or make decisions. These may include such conditions as a coma, stroke or dementia.

Creating advance directivesAdvance directives need to be in writing. Each state has different forms and requirements for creating legal documents. Depending on where you live, a form may need to be signed by a witness or notarized. You can ask a lawyer to help you with the process, but it is generally not necessary.

An advance directive isn't the same as a DNR DNRs, like POLST forms, require a physician's sign-off and are medical orders, instructing emergency personnel to withhold resuscitation efforts. If you don't want to receive resuscitation, including that information in an advance care directive is not enough.

Ideally, an advance care directive should be completed before the patient becomes unwell so that their treatment plan and wishes are clear if care escalates. Any person over the age of 18 with decision-making capacity is able to write an advance care directive (Australian DoH 2019).

Current thinking about advance care planning reveals it to be composed of behaviors including clarification of values; communication among patients, surrogates, and clinicians; and completion of written directives.

As long as you can still make your own decisions, your advance directive won't be used. You can change or cancel it at any time. Your health care agent will only make choices for you if you can't or don't want to decide for yourself.